Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has made no secret (especially in recent months) of criticizing Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6 MAGA insurrection. This has not gone over well with Senator Lindsey Graham, who’s still inexplicably worshipping at the altar of a voted-out president who’s still (falsely) insisting that he won the election. Graham even delivered a skeevy “I miss Trump” that looked vaguely like a hostage video, but these days, he’s not seeming conflicted at all.
Graham appeared on Fox News to speak with Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. The host groused over the “swampiness” of McConnell, and Graham made his position known, essentially with a threat to McConnell’s position. “If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with Trump,” Graham declared while adding that Trump would definitely get the 2024 GOP nom. “Im not going to vote for anybody that can’t have a working relationship with Trump.”
Graham: If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with Trump. Can Senator McConnell effectively work with the Donald Trump. I’m not going to vote for anybody that can’t have a working relationship with Trump pic.twitter.com/boOjekgyTT
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 13, 2022
So Graham and Hannity are basically telling McConnell to “bend the knee” to a leader who’s taken his party into far-right, alienating territory.
@LindseyGrahamSC throwing down the gauntlet to @LeaderMcConnell…will McConnell bend the knee to Trump as Graham and @seanhannity are demanding? https://t.co/lchobjTGpT
— Clay Ranck (@clayranck) January 13, 2022
As a result, a certain 2016 tweet from Graham himself — “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it” — is now back in circulation.
— Brian Hamm (@brianrdhamm) January 13, 2022
— Hairy Garcia (@mwobbe) January 13, 2022
“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it.”
I can’t believe that I ever voted for this ass kissing sellout. He’s now jockeying to get Mitch’s job. The only person @LindseyGrahamSC is loyal to is himself. #SCpol #SCGOP https://t.co/j7gLn1Z1k2
— lisa S Marie🧂Y (@frequentbuyer1) January 13, 2022
Granted, the quote never really went away, and it likely never will disappear, at least not until Graham (if ever) leaves the Senate (or denounces Trump, which probably will never happen).
How did Trump & Co flip Lindsey Graham?
May, 2016: "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it."https://t.co/vecejrMSLw #GOP— Roben Farzad (@robenfarzad) January 13, 2022
Lindsey Graham did say ‘if we nominate trump we will get destroyed and deserve it,’ and that’s probably why they’re encouraging trump fanatics to self-destruct bc they believe they deserve it, and GOP can redistrict themselves to win without them or him. Death panels.
— Tennessee (@TNsmartass) January 11, 2022
“You know how you make America great again?” Graham asked in 2015. “Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”
Then, on the same day Trump essentially clinched the GOP nomination, the senator predicted, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.”
— Walter Blake (@WalterBlake1) January 13, 2022
The former GOP is over, destroyed.
Reminder that he said it: "“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it." pic.twitter.com/7G19b30fdi— Dees Bees (@digweeg) September 25, 2021
Poor Lindsey is right. Just as right as he was when he said, "If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed, and we will deserve it …"
And I, for one, will greatly enjoy watching Trump destroy this toxic party. https://t.co/z1kDWgnKsB
— Khashoggi’s Ghost 🇺🇦🌻 (@UROCKlive1) July 18, 2021